Stories from the famiies of those brave ancestors who made the sea voyage to Australia

A Dog sitting on a Tuckerbox

On a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney in the Christmas holidays of 1957 we passed by this monument 5 miles from the town of Gundagai which is on the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales.

The Dog on the Tuckerbox five miles from Gundgai

Originally set up in 1932 as a money raiser for the Gundagai hospital and as a memorial to the European pioneers who settled the district, it shows a typical working dog sitting on his master’s tuckerbox, a box for storing food supplies. This faithful dog would guard the tuckerbox until his master returned, no matter how long it took. The idea was based on a song about Bullocky Bill which had been around since the 1850s and ended with.

And the dog sat on the tuckerbox nine miles from Gundagai.

Then in 1922 Jack O’Hagan came out with the song The Road to Gundagai which doesn’t actually mention a distance.. Since the original song about Bullocky Bill there have been many incarnations of the story in song, and with different distances,so there was plenty of motivation for Gundagai to build its own dog on a tuckerbox.

But as well as its original intention to be a tribute to Gundagai the monument has acquired an aura all of its own It can be regarded as a national icon and just like that loyal dog it represents all people who stand and wait for for the return of those who are away from home, whether it be peacetime or wartime.

There were no railings around the monument in the early days as this photo from the Gundagai Shire Council shows us.

But now there is a nearby Food Court with KFC, Subway, McCafe, BP service station and Tuckerbox restaurant. How tacky !!!!!

So to deviate a little, what did a tourist do in Sydney in 1957, a Sydney which was yet to get its landmark Opera House ? To begin with there is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Here is our tan Chevrolet – Chevie – Chev at the base of the Bridge, the same bridge where Paul Hogan used to work as a painter before other interests took over.

The tan coloured chevie at the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

At that time it was illegal to climb the Bridge but there was a cattery of beautiful white cats to be patted at the top of the bridge pylon. as in the slide show below.

From the top of the pylon you could watch the liner Oronsay passing underneath.

And there was time to sit on part of the prow of the original HMAS Sydney, built into a wall under the Bridge. It was launched in 1911 and de-commissioned in 1928. It saw service in World War I.

There were friends to enjoy time with on Bondi Beach

And a surf carnival to visit at North Steyne

Finally a peep in the gates of Kirribilli House, the residence of the Prime Minister when visiting Sydney

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So, would you like to do some listening ? Here is Peter Dawson (1882 – 1961), Australia’s own bass baritone singing Along the Road to Gundagai in 1931.

Or if you prefer a more country music rendition then listen to Slim Dusty singing the chorus from The Road to Gundagai.

There’s a scene that lingers in my memory –
Of an old bush home and friends I long to see –
That’s why I am yearning
Just to be returning
Along the road to Gundagai –

There’s a track winding back
To an old-fashioned shack
Along the road to Gundagai –
Where the blue gums are growing
And the Murrumbidgee’s flowing
Beneath that sunny sky –
Where my daddy and mother
Are waiting for me
And the pals of my childhood
Once more I will see.
Then no more will I roam,
When I’m heading right for home
Along the road to Gundagai.

When I get back there I’ll be a kid again –
Oh! I’ll never have a thought of grief or pain –
Once more I’ll be playing
Where the gums are swaying
Along the road to Gundagai –

This post has been a contribution to Sepia Saturday for it’s theme of Monuments.. There are many other monuments to visit from other contributors by following the links on Sepia Saturday.

Well done, B. You’ve covered our icons very nicely. I’ve visited the dog on his tuckerbox several times but don’t have a photo because it was in the days before I had a camera.
Remember the Aussie film ‘Red Dog’? It’s about dog loyalty as well, based on a true story, and he has a statue at Derby or somewhere in the north-west.

The statue of the dog sitting on a tuckerbox and the lovely story that goes along with it reminds me of the movie “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” where a dog becomes attached to a professor & waits for him every day to get off the train coming home from work. It’s a wonderful story with Richard Gere who (face it ladies) is not that hard to look at! If you haven’t seen it, you really should.

Happy memories of singing that song in the back of a car on the way to……Coonabarrabran…or Canberra……or the Blue Mountains….. or Sydney! Didn’t get to Gundagai very often. Maybe once or twice in living memory.

Your list of destinations reminded me of a TV ad a couple of years ago where this chap was driving his car with a couple of children and he was singing a ditty with a lovely long list of toungue-twisting Australian town names. Normally I just ignore the ads but this one stopped me in my tracks every time. I just adored it. I don’t know what they were advertising but the ad was great and now it’s just eating me up because I can”t remember that beautiful list of towns !!

The pylon had a tearoom, souvenir shop and an exhibition of Australian achievements. the manager also had a family of white cats on the roof of the Pylon Lookout, (14 steps up a ladder from the Parapet Level). Here they had their own merry-go-round, roamed the roof garden and ‘guarded’ a Wishing Wel, and were a great tourist attraction.

A very enjoyable post. Dogs deserve a statue or two, since cats are usually already posing as a statue. I was struck by the difference in English diction between the two singers though both are Australian. Dawson was a new name to me but seems to have been quite an important recording artist.

Peter Dawson is of the pre-war school of BBC style diction used in radio, on stage, public speaking etc. Many children were sent for elocution lessons to keep their speech with bounds. But country singers have always had a style of their own. And since World War II our general speech has mellowed with all the overseas influences and the relaxing of standards by our national broadcaster. I still love listening to Peter Dawson sing. The Road to Mandalay was another song he was well known for singing.

We stopped for coffee in Gundagai just this morning on our way home from Canberra to Melbourne, but these days we go into the town itself, rather than just stopping out on the highway at the statue, which we’ve seen many times before and which as you say is in very tacky surroundings these days. Gundagai however has lots of character and old buildings and is well worth a visit. If you ever get the chance, make a point of going into the tourist information centre, where they have an amazing ‘marble masterpiece’ sculpted by Frank Rusconi, who was a local resident and sculptor of the Dog. For more details and a photo, see http://www.visitgundagai.com.au/2013/marble-masterpiece/